The wound was clearly fatal, having punched straight through my defences as if they were paper and the added poison was beginning to course through my veins. A strange coldness seeped from my chest and the worst part was there was no pain. Looking behind me as my vision wavered, I spotted the Narith king. He was supposed to be confronting the princess, how was he walking out from the tree line. His muscles still swollen from his use of Titan Transformation and the bow in his had marked him as the assassin. It was only at that moment I realised that I never did receive any communication for the princess, the line had been silent the entire battle. In my hubris, I had tried to fight alone.
With my concentration failing, I fell from the sky. Using my rapidly increasing strength, I pulled the arrow forward, destroying whatever was left of my heart in the process. Pulsing my undertrained Ki through my body, I managed to restrain the poison and keep myself alive. It was a temporary solution that would fail when my Ki pool emptied but it was the best I could do. I chuckled at the situation, causing blood to leak from my mouth, before looking up at the pope. He was staring down at me with condescension and like any stupid overconfident asshole, he began monologuing. “I guess you wonder what happened? Why you're going to die here? Well just to see the look on your face during your last moments, I will let you understand the futility of your struggle.”
Descending to the ground, he walked up to me and placed the chakram underneath my chin. “This was never a two-country coalition. The Cazith dynasty stands with us and this is our first step in subduing the elves. Right about now your precious princess is probably dying to the Cazith emperor and his high general. So tell me how does it feel to know you have failed?”
He leaned closer safe in the knowledge that I was a dead man and I couldn't help but think. "The fucking lich was right!" You see, I wanted to go and have a straight-up brawl with these leaders, abusing my stats to come out victorious. Luckily, I had been talked out this stupidity by the lich. Alas, I have to admit, I did almost relapse into trying to solo them, thinking I was superior. Yet, this arrow quickly dashed those ideas, giving me no option but to follow the plan. It forced me to accept that I was merely an actor, playing on a stage created by those vastly more experienced than myself. Unfortunately for them, the advantages they had over me paled in comparison to what the thousands of years old lich from a higher layer had over them. The worst part for them was that they regularly visit his dungeon while training their soldiers, allowing him to understand their personalities and predict their actions almost perfectly.
Following the script, I bit down on the life pearl and potion orb I had kept hidden beneath my tongue. A sour flavour, reminiscent of lemon, exploded in my mouth before a mild warmth travelled down my throat. Feeling the first wave of healing pulse throughout my body, replacing the chill of death with the warmth of invigoration, I replied to his question with a raspy voice, “You should have gone for the head!” What's strange is, at that moment, I swore I could hear hundreds of people cringing in unison.
The combination of the life pearl and the princesses all-purpose antidote activated instantly and my fading life bloomed once more. Using the pope's momentary confusion, I succeeded in taking a small cube from my pocket. With a grin, I slammed it into the old dracon's chest. He followed his instincts, stepping back in a flash of light but that was a horrible mistake. To make sure it killed the pope, we tagged it to his mana signature. This meant it would follow him in the same manner as his own equipment, activating as soon as he was far enough from me. The cube opened and unlike the pathetically weak suction of the micro black holes, this was a true space anomaly. Without a sound, he was sucked into the cube before it closed and imploded. I had worked with the lich while my space affinity was at 999 and by abusing my knowledge in combination with his monumental mana reserves we had created this single-use ace in the hole.
Staring at the shocked king as he tried to use an escape medal, I laughed out loud. The massive pulse of space magic from the void box had destabilised the mana in the environment, making it impossible to use magic. Still boosted by Titan transformation, the king attempted to flee, but I activated my second and third artefacts. The second artefact expelled pure refined mana, smoothing the turbulence just long enough for the third to activate. A vast black ring expanded at almost light speed, forming a dome around anyone it touched. This ring did not differentiate between allies and enemies, so every member of both armies was sealed inside their own sphere. We used these spheres because they had a duration of fifteen minutes, let in sound but not light and were impervious to physical damage. Normally, a mage or Ki master would destroy them in seconds but in the current situation they might as well have been unbreakable.
According to the lich, this man was a coward who preyed on the weak and fled from the strong. Placing him in an unwinnable situation would make him crumble so I began to bluff, “You fucking morons thought you were the only ones who could deceive others. Not only was the weakness displayed by the pope obvious but I have been in contact with the princess the entire time and knew who she was fighting.” Walking up the king's sphere, I continued, “Plus you're not the only one with a third ally. While we were fighting, he was busy slaughtering your elite troops. Now, I'm sure they were supposed to do something stupid, like retake the space gate and give you a chance to win, but they have failed. You have failed!”
While I waited for the sealing spell to end, I reviewed the battle. Without prior knowledge, I would have definitely fallen into their trap and all of my regular life-saving methods would have been useless. Even after having used two miracle elixirs, my magic was still unusable with the Ki fighting to remove the flakes of orichalcum dispersed throughout my blood. It was technically not a poison, nor was it considered damaging thus neither the healing nor the antidote solved the problem. Lacking magic straight up eliminated most of my defensive choices and even rendered my newly created life treasure useless. Luckily, it was purged after ten minutes, allowing me to transcribe three formations around the king's cacoon.
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As mana around us returned to a stable state, the first of my formations instantly sprung to life, isolating the area and preventing the king from using space magic. Soon after, the shell collapsed and thin metal chains from the second formation buried themselves deep into his weakened flesh. Facing the weakness of the secondary effects of the titan transformation, combined with the vitality leaching and mana sealing of the chains, the king crumpled onto his knees and looked up to me. With a strained voice, he pleaded, “I surrender.”
Placing my hands on the defeated lord's shoulders, I responded, “I don't accept your surrender!” Before snapping his neck. The fucker shot me through the heart with a magical poison-tipped arrow, there was no way I was going to let him live. Moreover, I knew from the lich that this man was a poisonous snake who would bite me the second he got the chance. If I had not shut down his magic, which should have been almost impossible for people of this layer, I would have never caught him. I wasn't going to give him the chance to try this again with the additional knowledge that I was capable of such a feat.
As the enemy soldiers saw their leaders fall, they dropped their weapons. I commanded the army to seize the captives but not to harm them. Killing one prisoner was acceptable, committing a massacre of prisoners was not. Finally managing re-establishing contact with the princess after I found the signal jammer, I got an update on the situation. The plan with the dungeon had worked without a hitch and the 'secretly' invading 'elite' third army had been completely destroyed. The princess had managed to poison the Cazith emperor, his high general and their entire army before bartering the antidote for their surrender, which while not quite according to the lich's plan, worked very well. I informed her that I had eliminated the remaining threats and subdued their army.
With the combat concluded, we moved onto the next step. Over the coming week, a series of preplanned events happened. The oracle who we rescued from the pirate island with the support of the Cazith emperor, the princess, the leaders of the free trade republic and headmaster of the isle of mages was appointed the new pope of the Holy Dragon empire. While low levelled and fairly low on the inheritance list, the backing she possessed and ramifications of the war forced the clergies' hand.
Meanwhile, in the skies above the isle of mages, a massive inverted tower appeared. This glorious structure displayed itself for all to see, before disintegrating into light particles and charging into the heavens. A massive rift formed in the sky, letting those below view the pure white void that is the ascension realm. The lich had used my ritual to shed its dungeon form, leaving behind an echo of boisterous laughter and a massive cavern containing its old dungeon core body. The Isle was understandably pissed, right up until they discovered this empty core was a blank slate that could be completely controlled by them. Although it would take years, they could eventually produce an even better training facility.
Back on the eastern side of the continent, the void left by the two dead kings sparked a series of assassinations and power plays as different factions sought the thrones. Having lived so long, both kings had harems containing dozens of wives and now each wife wanted their child to take the crown. Unlike human societies, the title of dracon crown prince was held not held by the oldest but by the strongest of the king's kin. This title also did not guarantee that you would become the king, it merely marked you as the one that had to be killed if someone else wanted to claim it. You can think of it as a game of capture the flag where you need to hold the title for a year without dying to become the next king. The unfortunate princes were thrown into a murder royale that allowed all forms of assassination so long as you can prove you are the killer. Both the first and second crown princes were dead with a day of the news spreading and the third holder only lasted a week.
Looking out over the capital from the highest balcony, I sighed before turning to face the princess, “The sad part is despite everything I did to help you get your kingdom back, now that you have it back, there is nothing I need from it.”
This was met by two responses. The first was getting kicked in the shin the second was her retort, “There was not a single thing you did for this kingdom that didn't benefit you in some way. Stop trying to play the victim.” Thinking about the situation, it became obvious she was correct, though I would never admit it. My words were true though, the spirit wind kingdom held nothing of value. They were primarily a food-producing region that raised a selection of rare herbs and had no high-level mineral reserves worth my time. While the plants might have been useful. A few traitors, in an act of revenge, had managed to burn the elven grove to the ground while the armies were distracted. Only the seeds kept in the castle remained meaning it would take years to recover and decades to produce anything I needed.
Speaking about loot, there was very little from my battle with the pope and friends. Everything he had on him was destroyed by the void box. I found out after the fight, this included all three of the holy artefacts of the church and numerous other protective charms or useful items totalling around 80% of the churches rare materials. I was gobsmacked that the single-use barriers were crafted using both Mythril and orichalcum. Each one I shattered wasted around a coins worth of material, destroying their properties while turning them into silver and lead.
As for the king. All he carried on him was the bow, a few arrows and some charms. Apparently, he was the paranoid type and to prevent someone in his kingdom from rising up against him, he had hidden all their greatest treasures and resources in a location only he knew about. While I could claim winners remuneration from the kingdoms, they were both left nearly destitute.
I gathered my wayward thoughts, before jumping out the window. After falling for a second, I expanded my wings and took to the air. Abusing my aerial freedom was intoxicating and had become second nature. Soaring above the clouds, I gazed at the setting sun and rising moons before brining up my stat screen. There really was not much more I could do on this world and almost nothing more the princess could help me with. Plotting out the exploits, all I had remaining was to hunt the dragon-turtle, wild king and leviathan serpent. Obtain the Void Tardigrade and craft the doubling item for level zero after my ascension. My time on this unnamed planet was coming to an end.